News Items by thelonious

150-year-old Stonehenge photos unearthed on the Summer Solstice

"They are some of the oldest photographs ever taken of the ancient Stonehenge landmark and the book in which they are bound dates back to 1867. It’s a chronicle which until now has been lost in the archives of the national mapping agency Ordnance Survey....."

Old meets new as prehistoric cave is digitised

"Archaeologists from Bradford have created a digital model of the iconic Sculptor’s Cave in Moray, Scotland.

The high resolution digital model not only demonstrates the size and layout of the cave but importantly highlights the Pictish (early medieval) symbols found on the walls that make the cave so fascinating.

The cave was also used as a focus for complex funerary rites and the deposition of precious objects in the Late Bronze Age/Iron Age....."

In search of the world's oldest cave etching

"I'M DRIVING across South Australia's featureless but iconic Nullarbor Plain when suddenly the red earth falls away into a black abyss. "Dramatic really is the word for it," says Keryn Walshe.

Fifty metres wide and 25 metres deep, the sinkhole is a gateway to the mysterious Koonalda caves.Walshe, an archaeologist from the South Australian Museum, is leading a group of researchers and members of the Mirning people, the traditional Aboriginal owners of the land, into the caves. It has taken us 6 hours to drive here, after flying in from Adelaide, the nearest city, 900 kilometres away.

We have come to see strange wall markings that may have been a tactile code left by flint miners during the last ice age. The mine might be among the oldest in the world, as may the markings. The flint has clearly been cut away in numerous places and worked into tools, and ash deposits from fires show people have been coming here for tens of thousands of years...."

Historic hill at risk of being removed from landscape

"An entire hill, famed for its archeological heritage and geological significance, is to be removed from the Scottish skyline to make way for a quarry under plans being considered by West Dunbartonshire Council.

Sheep Hill, in the Kilpatrick Hills on the Clyde, is the site of ancient Bronze and Iron Age forts which local residents and experts say will be destroyed by the expansion of a stone quarry....."

News

New evidence suggests Stone Age hunters from Europe discovered America

"New archaeological evidence suggests that America was first discovered by Stone Age people from Europe – 10,000 years before the Siberian-originating ancestors of the American Indians set foot in the New World."

Was the Spotted Horse an Imaginary Creature?

"About 25,000 years ago, humans began painting a curious creature on the walls of European caves. Among the rhinos, wild cattle, and other animals, they sketched a white horse with black spots. Although such horses are popular breeds today, scientists didn't think they existed before humans domesticated the species about 5000 years ago. Now, a new study of prehistoric horse DNA concludes that spotted horses did indeed roam ancient Europe, suggesting that early artists may have been reproducing what they saw rather than creating imaginary creatures......"

Bear DNA is clue to age of Chauvet cave art

"EXPLORING a gorge in south-east France in 1994 for prehistoric artefacts, Jean-Marie Chauvet hit the jackpot. After squeezing through a narrow passage, he found himself in a hidden cavern, the walls of which were covered with paintings of animals.

But dating the beautiful images - which featured in Werner Herzog's recent documentary film Cave of Forgotten Dreams - has led to an ugly spat between archaeologists. Could the bones of cave bears settle the debate?"